The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-04-20
THE ST. 10 BOOM.
A City of O,OOO That Will Number 16(
600 in Twelve Monthe.

A City Of 10000 That viii Number 1eo'-
900 in Twelve NJ onthn.
"Most remarkable statements are heard
in every hotel lobby and on every railroad
train about st. Joseph, No." writes press
correspondent. "a large amount of Kansas
City, Chicago and St Louis capital is being
invested in St. Joseph real estate, and hear
that number of large enterprises employing
thousands of men and with capital that tops
millions, have completed arrangements for
moving, bag and baggage, to this new center
Of emigration. Imet st. Joseph man on
Wabash train to-day. He tells me that the
immediate cause of the great boom is the ex-
tension of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific
Railroad. This great system is making st.
Joseph its Missouri River depot for its freight
and stock traffic between Chicago and the
Southwestern ranges, and has given the city
prominence as railroad center equaled
only by Chicago. The extension Of the Rock
Island has induced the Chicago, Milwaukee
g. St Paul to extend the diagonal south
ward to st. Joseph. and the Santa Fe
to come up direct from Topeka and Atchison,
in order to secure a short cut to Chicago, said
to be sixty miles shorter than by any other
way The Rulo bridge will be completed by
the first Of August. and that will send the
Burlington & Missouri trains from Denver
straight through St. Joseph, eastward via the
Hannibal These and other favorable circllm.
stances have combined to bring about a
boom which as I said in the outset, has be.
come the absorbing topic of conversation
in every prominent hotel lobby half way
across the continent. I hear ofmen who have
made fortune in one day on an investment
Of 81 900. People are buying lots in hollows
and on top of bluffs. and half the sales are
made from the map without an inspection OF
the ground whereon they are located. The
city has about 10000 inhabitants. and not
the least remarkable fact is that she is quoted
in the last United States census as
next to Portland, the richest town of
her size in the country. controlling the whole.
sale trade OF Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and
New Mexico. Her shipping facilities, coupled
with her large wholesale trade, has made her
perhaps the best manufacturing and pork
packing point in the West. The new Stock
Yards, the most complete west of Chicago.
cover 4fU acres OF ground, ana Will
shortly combine hotel, Stock Ex-
change and several large packing
houses with other facilities Local
capitalists are erecting new $500, 900 hotel,
a safe depository, and companies have been
organized to build belt line and two cable
roads, while the Council has just granted the
right to two of the street-car companies to
employ the electric motor. An inspection Of
the Boston Posts weekly clearinghouse re-
ports for the past three months shows the per
centage of increase the largest Of any
city quoted in the report. Under
such like circumstances, my informant
thought, the boom rested upon a
solid footing Strangers are coming in by
every train, and he predicted that the city
would have population Of 100000 in the
next twelve months. Large additions to
the city are plated, but on the market and
sold in two days for residences, manufactur-
ing and business purposes, the real estate
deals ranging from $3.50, 600 to 500, 600 day,
those of last week footing up s., 3,50O,0oo.